Category: community indicators

Congratulations to Beth Kanter, Active Networker

Beth Kanter in 2005If you ever doubt the powerful combination of one motivated person and a large social network, take a look at this Businessweek story about my friend Beth Kanter.

One of the Web’s First Social Networkers – BusinessWeek

Ask Kanter about fundraising, and her strategy quickly becomes clear. She reaches for every tool that can connect with people, and she works them tirelessly.

I met Beth in 2005 at the first Blogher. I was intrigued about her taking shoe pictures. I was blown away by her energy and passion to learn and expand what she knew and did. VORACIOUS. And we became friends connected mostly by electrons, often cross posting to each others’ blogs – a lot – in the early years of our friendship.

I watched as her social network grew, the scope of her ambitions expand from a project focus, to changing the way non profits used social media for their communications and fundraising. More than any other individual I know, Beth changed the landscape, one post, one tweet, one connection at a time, all the while understanding the amplifying powers of networks.

Well, not just networks. You see, Beth adds the personal touch. The warmth. The connection. And the fearlessness to try new things, to ask people to engage and participate. The technology stewardship to make all the crazy tools work.  This is active network activation. There is nothing passive here.

Using social media for any reason is not disconnected from our warmth and humanity.  Just ask Beth!

How Could I have missed the annual Soup Swap?

Nerd's Eye Soup Swap Picture on FlickrI live in a place that is cold, dark and wet in the winter, something that can only be assuaged by good friends, more chocolate and soup. I am thinking about making split pea soup this very minute but instead, I was doing some blog reading catch up on Nerd’s Eye View – a Seattle blogger – and saw her post on a Seattle Soup Swap.

Waaah. I missed it. No matter that day I had just returned from 20 hours of international travel and was asleep by the time they started, but just the idea is delicious. It is such a community indicator. When people ask about the most important part of facilitating a F2F event, i say “the communal meals.” Even better if they are home made, pot luck, or if in a restaurant, family style. Where the sound level is quiet enough to hear each other converse, but not so quite you feel embarassed to guffaw out loud. Or worse, laugh with your mouth full of food.

While there is SO much we can do together online, I have yet to find the thing that creates the experience of a shared meal. I have been in online chats where each of us, at our distributed location, eats and writes about what we are eating. But it is a different experience. The hosting act of providing a tenderly cooked meal, or even sharing your store bought cookie, is a uniquely human, embodied experience. It ain’t the same online.

There is one ritual of the soup swaps that I find entrancing. Knox Gardner writes about it from the recent Seattle Swap:

It takes quite a while for the “Telling of the Soup” to get around the room when there are twenty-two soups, but it’s worth it. Without the Telling, it’s an empty power grab. With the telling, the humaneness of sharing food together shines right through. It’s essential.

Here is another soup swap post worth reading.

Want to set up your own Soup Swap? You can find all the how-to’s at Soup Swap

Photo from Nerds Eye View on Flickr

Watching the Inaguration from Overseas

Watching the Inaguration from AfarLast Tuesday I was in Rome at the FAO Headquarters for a three day “Share Fair” event. I was able to have the last session free so I could keep an eye on the inaguration, 6 time zones behind me, via the Internet. I frankly was a bit sad that I would be watching alone and sent a few tweets to that affect, only to be beautifully reminded by many of my Twitter friends that I was not alone.

But soon as the last session ended, a few of my fellow Americans (there weren’t too many here!) collected in the KM4Dev corner of chairs at the fair and we began to huddle around a couple of laptops. Soon other friends from other countries joined us. The ultimate experience was wonderful for me, to be able to experience this event with my global colleagues. As an American who works mostly with people from around the world, the last 8 years have been difficult. I have had the privilege of regularly experiencing American from outside our borders and learning others’ feelings and experiences. But it has been difficult for me, with my own political beliefs.

It was beautiful to agree with the incoming beliefs and agendas of my new president. It was one of the FEW moments in the last 8 years where I wanted to make my own political joy visible, and not try and diminish my political sorrow.  So thank you to all my global friends, online and in Rome that day, for sharing the moment.  I’m glad my community was with me. And the photo above is a great community indicator!

Photoo: Facebook | Photos of You

Your recommendation has power

I started entitling this blog post “don’t underestimate the power of your recommendation. Then I stopped myself. There are enough “don’ts” out there already!

I have barely read the blogs of dear friends and trusted colleagues over the past months. The toll of 76,950 miles of airplane travel (and countless trains and buses) last year really dug into both my blogging and my blog reading. I am having to clear all my blog reading subscriptions and start again from zero which I am doing today. I did that to all my “nice but not necessary to respond to emails and forum postings” on December 31st. I am also noticing that being home for a full month, exercising, doing yoga and eating right has restored my energy. I guess that means I’m ready for the overseas trip that starts tomorrow! Here I come, Roma!

But some stories beg to be passed along, and this one from Lee and Sachi LeFever at CommonCraft is one of those stories that makes the point of the importance of recognizing the power of both recommendation, story and reciprocity. Read for yourself.

Photo by Sachi LeFever via Flickr creative commonsThe Best Christmas Gift – From a Driver in Sri Lanka

We became friends with Mervyn and had a wonderful time in Sri Lanka.  We always felt safe and Mervyn was a perfect driver and guide – he gave us a local’s perspective and became our friend. He introduced us to Arrack, a favorite alcohol of locals.  We told him that we would write about him on the Internet and hoped it would help his business. It was the least we could do.

Last night, on Christmas Eve, 4 years after deciding we would go on the trip, we received this email message from Mervyn:

DEAR SIR,

HOW ARE YOU? I AM FINE AND ALL OK WITH ME. I HAD GOOD BUSINESS FOR THIS YEAR. THAT IS BECAUSE OF YOU. THIS YEAR 90% FROM THE BUSINESS I GOT FROM YOUR WEB SITE THAT YOU RECOMAND ME. I SAY AGAIN AND AGAIN THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I WISH MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOUR WIFE.

MERVYN

This message made our Christmas extra special this year. Mervyn is honest, has a good heart, is very hard-working, and deserves to have a successful business.  It’s inspiring to me, as a blogger, to think that a couple of blog posts can make such a big difference to someone like him on the other side of the world. Our post is the #3 result for  “Driver Sri Lanka” on Google. I hope we can continue to help Mervyn’s business in 2009.

In the days of loose ties and swift creation and forgetting of connections, a small signal sent out in gratitude and appreciate can have unexpected results. Yes, our complaints may get those big businesses to improve their customer service if enough of us bitch and moan. But our little, individual generative acts, can have swift and powerful repercussions to people like Mervyn.

Who have you thanked or recommended today? How will that help them have a better financial year in tough times, or simply give them a little energy to get through the day?

I’m saying thanks to Lee and Sachi for blogging about Mervyn. And for Mervyn writing back to tell them what was the result of that blog post.